‘Like I say, whatever it takes, I’ll do it. We’ve got a good few grand in the safe and …’

Franny cut in, knowing that she needed to tell Alfie she’d taken the money albeit she certainly wouldn’t tell him she’d taken it and given it to Ma to keep quiet about Bree and her.

‘We haven’t.’

‘Yeah we have, there’s about ten or fifteen grand, and I know it won’t be enough but it’s a start.’

Franny spoke intently. ‘But that’s what I’m trying to tell you, we haven’t. Not anymore.’

Alfie’s face darkened. He became agitated. ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’

‘The money in the safe, I … I had to use it.’

With the tension between them electric, Alfie fell silent as he stared at Franny in disbelief, and it was only after a few moments he said, ‘Why the fuck didn’t I know about this? And more to the point, why did you use it?’

Franny, the panic swirling around her again, snapped. ‘I don’t need to run everything past you, Alf. In case you’ve forgotten, we’re a team. Sometimes we’ll do things together and sometimes we’ll do things individually and know the other person has got our back and won’t question what we do.’

Alfie tilted his head, menace coming into his voice. ‘You haven’t answered the question.’

Franny’s mind raced as her eyes darted across Alfie’s face. ‘Vaughn.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I had to give the money to Vaughn. Well rather, I had to put the money back in the business to try to balance the books. I didn’t want to say. You were so stressed.’

Alfie shook his head, his stare piercing. ‘Hold on, I’m not following you.’

Keeping her cool like she’d always been taught, Franny leant in to Alfie’s face. Her tone was cold. ‘I know we’re both tired but it’s not difficult to understand what I’m saying … I told you before, Vaughn was robbing us from right underneath our noses, and when I found out I confronted him, and he tried to turn it round to make it look like I was the one stealing money.’

Alfie held Franny’s gaze and with a strange look in his eye he said, ‘And you would never do that, would you?’

Feeling uneasy, but certainly not letting it show, Franny shook her head. ‘I know what I did about the letters was wrong. I should never have written them, but no, I would never do anything to hurt you or our business.’

Alfie nodded slowly. ‘Because you’ve got no secrets, have you, Fran?’

Tightly, Franny replied, ‘None.’

‘That’s right, because you’ve already told me that, haven’t you? The girl with no secrets.’